Since the advent of computers, a large and growing number of computer software applications have been developed to assist users in all aspects of business, education, entertainment and personal development. As an ever-increasing number of software applications are developed, the amount of and complexity of functionality provided to users by those software applications have increased dramatically.
Often users become bogged down in the complexity and quantity of functionality offered by their software applications. They often have difficulty locating the desired functionality; when they are able to locate desired functionality, often they do not understand how to use the functionality to its fullest benefit. Many computer software applications contain help files and so called “wizards.” Wizards are interactive help utilities within applications or operating systems that may be used to guide the user through steps of particular tasks such as opening a document, printing a document, saving a document, and the like. It is known in the prior art to include help files in software applications for providing information to the user about a particular component or functionality of a software application. It is also known in the art to provide a wizard for guiding a user through the steps of the task at hand, for example, printing a document. However, the user typically must launch the help file functionality in order to receive assistance from the help files. And, unfortunately, the user may be just as unfamiliar with the steps required to launch the help file functionality as he/she is with executing the task at hand.
Some prior art systems include a wizard that deploys as a graphical user interface on the screen of the user's computer. The user may select the wizard in order to get assistance with performing the desired functionality.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.